Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis’ remarks at the joint session of the Parliamentary Standing Committees on European Affairs and on National Defence and Foreign Affairs (03.11.2021)

“The return to a nationalist rhetoric on the part of Northern Macedonia will essentially lead us to redefine our national position regarding our support to the enlargement process,” pointed out Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, speaking today at a joint session of the Parliamentary Committees on European Affairs and on National Defence and Foreign Affairs, in which the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Αnže Logar, also participated, presenting the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency.

Mr. Varvitsiotis underlined that “one of the unwavering conditions that have been set in the negotiating framework is the consistent and proper implementation of all the provisions of the Prespa Agreement” and that “this message should be conveyed today by all of us to our neighbours who have gone into a political turmoil”. He reminded that Greece and he personally invited the Ministers of European & Foreign Affairs of the Western Balkans to Thessaloniki, on September 15, “because we believe that the voice of the Western Balkans should be heard at the Conference on the Future of Europe”.

On the issue of the Common Migration and Asylum Policy, the Alternate Minister said that “Greece’s position is that nothing can be agreed until everything is agreed, that the migration and asylum pact cannot be torn apart in various pieces”. In particular, any migration pact, in order to be accepted by Greece, should meet three conditions, said the Alternate Minister: Firstly, “there should be uniform rules for the protection of the Union’s external borders.” Secondly, “the external dimension of migration policy, ie agreements with countries of origin or transit countries for rapid returns should be addressed”. And thirdly, “there should be a burden sharing between the Member States”.

Referring to the debate on the Rule of Law in the EU, Mr. Varvitsiotis said that “Greece fully supports the compliance process which is required by the Member States that commit serious violations”, referring in particular to the recent ruling of the Polish Constitutional Court, which “essentially annulled EU Law primacy over the national justice system”. “Europe cannot make any compromise on this cornerstone of its edifice, which is respect for the rule of law,” underlined Mr Varvitsiotis.

Finally, the Alternate Minister noted that Greece supports the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency, which can be summarized in three words: “together”, “resilient” and “Europe”.